I finally dug into my instrument cluster today (to boldly go where no man dares to go!) to investigate just why in the heck my trip meters weren't working. Boy, it ain't for the faint of heart, but it isn't any harder than a transmission change....hee! One thing for sure the FSM and the Chilton, and the Haynes are no help. They tell you to "disconnect the speedometer cable" after removing the four inst. cluster mounting screws and pulling out the entire assy. Yeah, right. Hey, guys, you missed a step.....the one telling you you have to disconnect the cable from the tranny. You don't have enough slack to get your hand in there otherwise.

Anyhow, I took the cluster out, popped off the front cover, took the back screws out of the screw-down points for each individual guage set, and gently took the speedo out. I hooked my drill up with a square drive bit and inserted it into the back cable drive point. Note that the drill should run counter-clockwise....

I found that there was a point where the trips were not being driven....where one gear wasn't turning another. This happened to be the point where the trips are driven (imagine that). Further investigation revealed that there was a busted plastic bearing mounting point on the end of a drive shaft. This was keeping the shaft misaligned to where the gears didn't mesh. From there, I noticed a broken/split blue drive gear on another shaft. This apparently bound up the trip gear and put enough pressure to break the bearing mount mentioned above.

What is my point in all of this rambling? You can fix the trips without messing up your certified mileage on the speedo as they can be removed and replaced with a donor set from another cluster.

1. Remove the two phillips screws attaching the speedo from the front (small, black, rest behind the pointer). Do NOT try to remove the pointer!! You do not need to for this fix.

2. Remove the two screws that hold the electrical connector on the back of the speedo assy (I think this connector is what turns on the blasted 'check' light at certain mileage).

3. Gently, gently, start working the trip set under and out of the back. You will have to coax the two pushbuttons through the front of the speedo face a little at a time, but it can be done with a little cursing and patience. You will have to slightly bend the pushbuttons as you work around the bottom of the speedo servo.

4. Reverse the above steps to reinstall. I highly recommend testing it with a drill and square drive bit like I did to make sure everything registers like it should. Make sure there is no binding anywhere in the gear drives from where you reassembled it. That could be devastating. BTW, this would be a good time to slightly lube your cable if it is ticking or rattling on you.

Now I have my meters fixed to their original glory and do not have to subtract from the main odometer each time I want to calculate my fuel mileage.

 

ok can we say sticky
Mine stopped and I havent worried about it. Im still not sure if I want to venture where you ventured. I will sticky this after everyone has taken a look at it.

 

hi,

hey pretty impressive,

good lucky for everybody else that needs to fix their meter,

 

Sticky this now?

 

damn no wonder y i tried to pull that damn thing out to put those damn gagues in and it wouldnt come out thanks for that bit of information.